Complete Watcher Update Patch Notes

[fangirlcrazily]

Highlights

Research Scaling
The way knowledge costs are determined for skills in Tomes has changed. Instead of the tier of the skill determining the cost, the knowledge cost is now based on the amount of Tomes you have collected so far. Every new Tome you unlock will have increased knowledge cost of skills compared to the Tome before, regardless of what Tier the Tome or the skill is.

• The general knowledge cost of tome skills is increased, especially near the mid and late game Tomes.
  
• The base knowledge cost of skills for tomes are as follows:
  
  • 1st Tome, general research and cultural research: 250
    
  • 2nd Tome: 400
    
  • 3rd Tome: 600
    
  • 4th Tome: 800
    
  • 5th Tome: 1100
    
  • 6th Tome: 1500
    
  • 7th Tome: 1900
    
  • 8th Tome: 2400
    
  • 9th Tome: 3000
    
  • 10th Tome: 3600
    
  • 11th Tome: 4300
    
  • 12th Tome: 5000
    
  • Every Tome afterwards has an additional +1000 knowledge cost per skill.
• Individual skills in a Tome now have a skill level (Adept, Intermediate or Expert). This adds a modifier on the knowledge cost. Different skills inside of a tome can still differ in cost as they did previously.
  
• Changed Tome Tier unlocking. Instead of needing 2 tomes of the previous tier, you just need a certain number of tomes of any tier. This means that players can choose more lower level tomes without slowing down their progress towards higher level tomes.
  
  • Tier II - 2 Tomes of any Tier
    
  • Tier III - 4 Tomes of any Tier
    
  • Tier IV - 6 Tomes of any Tier
    
  • Tier V - 8 Tomes of any Tier
• Tier 3 tomes now require 3 affinity points to be unlocked.

Magic Victory Rework
The new Magic Victory Rework focuses on the binding of Golden Ancient Wonders to eventually cast the Age of Affinity Spells. By using Ancient Wonders the Victory Condition becomes more active and makes it different from the Expansion Victory.

• Upon selecting your first tier 3 tome, a new global research skill appears "Bind Gold Ancient Wonder"
  
  • It's a sustained strategic spell that must target an annexed golden ancient wonder in your empire.
    
  • While bound, provides research bonus, but more important of all, a number of them are needed to cast the Age of Affinity spell.
• The Age of Affinity spell appears when you first unlock your Tier 5 tome, in the same place as the Binding spell.
  
  • You can channel it while having enough bindings, but if you lose enough bindings during channeling the spell will be canceled.
    
  • You lose a binding when your wonder or the city it's attached to gets occupied or changes ownership.
• Global Spells are a separate Research pick, not part of the three randomly drawn ones and can be started/paused at any time once it becomes available.
  
• The amount of Golden Ancient Wonders required scales based on the size of the map

Summon & Casting Changes
We've added a system to limit how many spells can be actually launched each turn, as well as tightened the rules about where units can be summoned.

• Summoning Spells can now only be targeted on cells next to your City, your Ruler or your Heroes.(previously they could be targeted on any visible hex)
  
• Added a Spell Slot system that limits the number of spells that the player can prepare without actually casting them. This prevents the player from banking up a lot of spells, only to cast them all at once.
  
• Starting Casting Points increased from 30 to 45.
  
• Changed Casting Point cost of Combat spells to make it easier to cast higher tier spells and have casting points left for other spells and to make it so casting many low tier spells less free. Mana costs have stayed the same.
  
  • Tier 0: Increased from 5 to 10
    
  • Tier 1: Increased from 10 to 15
    
  • Tier 2: Increased from 15 to 20
    
  • Tier 3: Increased from 20 to 25
    
  • Tier 4: Stays at 30
    
  • Tier 5: Decreased from 40 to 35
    
  • Tier 6: Decreased from 50 to 40
    
  • Tier 7: Decreased from 60 to 50
    
  • Tier 8: Decreased from 80 to 65
    
  • Tier 9: Decreased from 100 to 80
• Several World Map spells have been made more consistent. They have their damage or other effectiveness increased while being slightly harder to cast repeatedly. Making for fewer but more impactful actions.

Map Improvements
We’re tackling several elements of the Map Generation that we’ve seen the community provide feedback on. The focus for these improvements will be on the Underground Experience, but we’ve touched up the overall Map Generation as well.

• Reworked Map Generation
  
  • Renamed Player Distance to Relative Map Size
    
  • Added a new Very Large setting which has increased distance between players and larger total map size.
• Changed the Continents generation to allow for more varied maps, and small islands to form in the water.
  
• Cities can now annex Provinces on the opposite layer through Underground Passages. This is possible when provinces on both sides of a Underground Passage are annexed.
  
• Excavating no longer spawns a roaming stack of monsters that follow you. You can now uncover infestations and guarded nodes instead.
  
• Improved player placement in the underground to better take into account the positions on the surface

General

• Renamed Publish to Build as it’s more fitting for the process that happens when you press this button.
  
• Traits from race council events now give +2 of their respective racial affinity points (was +1).
  
• Added Wizard Tower Affinity City upgrades:
  
  • Bolstering Matrix
    
    • Unlocks at Wizard Tower: Level 2
      
    • Adds additional effects to Affinity Buff & Healing Spells
  • Amplifier Lens
    
    • Unlocks at Wizard Tower: Apex & Bolstering Matrix
      
    • Adds additional Damage to Affinity Damage Spells
      
    • Adds additional effects to Affinity Debuff Spells

AI

• Rebalance
  
  • Removed unit upkeep and unit cost discount from normal difficulty
    
  • Removed unit cost discount from hard and very hard difficulty
    
  • Reduced unit upkeep discount from 33% to 15% on hard difficulty
    
  • Reduced unit upkeep discount from 50% to 30% on very hard difficulty
    
  • Removed stat bonus for units on very hard difficulty
• Changed Unit Production logic. The AI will no longer always produce units but tries to keep up with the strongest human player. They try to have at least X% more army power than the human player
  
  • Easy 5%
    
  • Normal 50%
    
  • Hard 75%
    
  • Very hard 100%
  
  
• Changed Defense Logic
  
  • Cities with walls no longer have always defend flag ( this opens up additional units for the AI to use)
    
  • When under threat the AI will defend accordingly towards the threat
    
  • Throne Cities under Siege will become a forced defense
• Changed how the AI takes Siege Durations into account when attacking and defending
  
• Changed Disbanding units logic:
  
  • They will no longer disband units on cities and victory condition structures that are under threat
    
  • Never disband units on cities that are under siege
• Improvements to AI summon logic:
  
  • Removed rule that the AI can only summon units when there is a combat nearby. Now the AI will summon units as soon they are primed
    
  • The AI no longer needs to have a standing threat near their leader or cities to start summoning units
    
  • Increased the research priority of units and summons
    
  • Increased the priorities of each summon spell by the tier of units they would summon
• Increased the mission distance range to generate more things for the AI to do at a longer range
  
• Economic focus changes. The AI should no longer replace gold, mana and resource improvements, providing a stronger economy
  
• Changed rule regarding clearing Ancient Wonders. The AI will now clear them when they are in annex range to Cities or Outposts
  
• Changed empire development rule, ruleset now includes taking into account free cities that could be integrated instead of only new cities
  
• AI update for making declarations:
  
  • The amount of declarations that will be made on a player by the AI is now more balanced.
    
  • The AI should no longer abundantly declare friendships on a player, unless that player declares a friendship on them.
    
  • Isolationists no longer declare friendships unless it is declared on them.
    
  • An issue was fixed where the influence of ranking on declarations was inverted.
• AI Update for the Threat system:
  
  • The threat system has been expanded to look at several new factors and has been tweaked to achieve more competition with nearby rulers and rulers that are competing in overall ranking.
    
  • The impact of the “need a friend” and “need an ally” modifiers is reduced for warlord and isolationist AI players.
    
  • The “need an ally” modifier now only applies if either side of the relation has a war, to make sure the AI doesn’t radically shift opinion (to positive).
    
  • The system now takes Defensive Pacts into account more and no longer waits for a Full Alliance before applying certain factors.
    
  • Some AI players will now have a predisposition in their threat level towards higher / lower threat to make sure
    
  • Generally AI rulers should initially act more threatened and hostile.
• Added support for the AI to save up imperium in the late game to buy the city cap empire tree skill
  
• Added a cooldown to the AI manually sending a call to war to wait at least 2 turns after the diplomatic state with the player they call into a war has changed.
  
• Updated the AI aggression when calculating the army powers required to fight
  
• Correctly added the AI mission army calculation when targeting independents
  
• Implemented new free city expansion rules, when fully independent they will expand in a circular pattern, when they are a vassal they will default to pick the highest value again
  
• Changed AI research values to have a focus on Units, enchantments and transformations ( in this order )
  
• Changed AI Evaluation for the Magic victory condition research
  
• AI difficulty setting changes
  
  • Normal
    
    • Mana income from 1 to 1.2
      
    • Research Income from 1 to 1.1
  • Hard
    
    • Gold Income from 1.2 to 1.3
      
    • Mana income from 1.2 to 1.3
      
    • Research income from 1 to 1.2
  • Very Hard
    
    • Gold Income from 1.3 to 1.4
      
    • Mana income from 1.3 to 1.4
      
    • Research income from 1 to 1.3
• Changed the AI vs Independents settings
  
  • Added survivability and damage modifiers based on the world threat settings
• Added simple support to stop friendly or allied AI’s from expanding towards the players domain

[/list]

Art

Environment Art

• Added drips pfx to the underground stalagmites on WM
  
• Added pointlights to the underground lava WM
  
• Added pointlights to the underground water WM
  
• Texture pass on the underground mushroom forest
  
• Texture pass on the underground digable walls
  
• Fixed vertex snap issue with wizard tower city structure

Unit Art

• New siegecraft icon
  
• New Bind Ancient Wonder PFX

Combat

• The “All enemies have routed” dialog will now popup even if temporary summons and siege engines are not routing. This mirrors the rules for winning battle, which does not require those units to be killed.
  
• Combat AI is now more likely to use guard breaking and retaliation canceling abilities.
  
• Tactical combat AI will now choose more varied spells
  
• Modified the XP gain cap so that dragons and rulers soloing battles earn less XP - a solo unit will now only earn 25% of the battle’s total XP (previously it was 50%)
  
• Added a small wait time in between turns to make turn transitions less jarring.

Buffs/Debuffs

• Slowed
  
  • In addition to slowing movement also disables Retaliation Attacks
    
  • Decreased duration from 3 Turns to 2
• Fortune and Misfortune - Reduced stacking from 5 to 3.
  
• Misfortune now applies 15% fumble chance instead of 10%
  
• Evasion effects now correctly only work on Physical Ranged and Magic attacks.

Cultures

Feudal

• Defender - Heavy Shield also gives +1 resistance.
  
• Bannerman - Reduce defense by 1. Reduce damage of Banner Smite by 2.
  
• Knight - Now has Giant Slayer, and does an additional 30% damage to large targets
  
• Hold the Line: Units can now only get steadfast from this spell once per combat.

High

• Seeker Missiles:
  
  • Renamed to Seeking Arrows
    
  • No longer increases accuracy.
• Awakened now grants +3 Spirit damage instead of +4.
  
• Dawn Defender - Gained +5 HP
  
• Daylight Spear - Gained +1 Resistance
  
• Awakener - Dormant Trait: Seeker Missiles Replaced with Dormant Trait: Blinding Radiance
  
• Battle Mages now get Dormant: Radiant Light instead of Dormant: Seeking Missiles from the High Enchantment.
  
• Hero Skill “Coordinated Strike” is now an Expert skill (from Adept) and Marked now has a 60% chance to apply rather than being guaranteed.

Industrious

• Steelshaper: Grant defense becomes a free action, cooldown to 2
  
• Industrious Bastion
  
  • Now has defensive masters, so it always enters defense mode at end of its turn
    
  • Inspired Defense is now a free action on a 2 turn cooldown

Mystic

• Arcanist - Reduce resistance to 1
  
• Soother now has Star Blades

Diplomacy

• The trade value for equipment is back to the original item value and extra limits have been added to make sure the AI will not ask for/offer resources in return that deviate too far from the original value.
  
• The costs for starting a declaration (of friendship or rivalry) are now fixed at 100 gold instead of scaling over time.
  
• The costs for boosting the allegiance of a free city during negotiations are now shown on the button directly.
  
• Declaration of Rivalry now has a new effect where it generates “Rival Justification” over time, this allows the player to ignore part of the opposing ruler’s grievance points when they declare war on that ruler.
  
• Declarations of Friendship will now automatically end if an Alliance or Defensive Pact ends / is broken.
  
  • The AI will now wait several turns before attempting a new declaration after a declaration has recently ended.
• Automated Calls to War will now be sent if two of the Player’s allies go to war against each other.
  
• Made some text adjustments to better explain how the impact of war justification works on imperium when involved in multiple wars.
  
• Changed Moderate Justified war Imperium gain from +10% Imperium to +10 Imperium.
  
• Changed Extremely Justified war Imperium gain from +20% Imperium to +20 Imperium.
  
• Removed the Imperium gained when releasing a city as a vassal.
  
• Added an Imperium cost for releasing cities as your own vassals. This cost increases as you release more cities.
  
  • 1st city: Free
    
  • 2nd city: 25 Imperium
    
  • 3rd city: 50 Imperium
    
  • 4th city: 75 Imperium
    
  • 5th city and up: 100 Imperium
• Sustained City Spells that grant economic bonuses no longer work on Vassals.
  
• AI rulers will now mention the Magic Victory when they declare war on the player.

Empire Development

• Advanced Scrying, Forced March and Siege Project Slot are unlocked earlier.
  
• Advanced Scrying now also increases vision range by 2.
  
• Skilled Raiders now gives 20% as the description implies instead of 25%
  
• Philosopher soldiers now explains the amounts gained for each rank in its description.
  
• Ingredient Experimentation knowledge bonus decreased from +15 to +10.
  
• New Empire Skill Added: Advanced Logistics. It has the following effects:
  
  • Move Point cost of roads outside of the enemy domain is reduced to 3 instead of 5.
    
  • Units gain Fast Embark and when embarked, they have Very fast Movement speed.

Factions

• Gave Shira Snowblood the White Wolf trait properly
  
• Elaborated what the Form Adaptations do mechanically. The different Walk properties also state what the movement costs are before and after the property.
  
• Fixed various minor issues with traits not displaying correct values and text

Body Trait

• Quick Reflexes: Reduced evasion from 30% to 25%
  
• Defensive Tactics now gives 10% evasion on top of +1 defense and resistance

Mind Trait

• Water Adaptation has been renamed to Swamp adaptation.
  
• Swamp Adaptation now also gives River Walk.
  
• Underground Adaptation now grants +1 annex range on cities in the underground of this race.

Society Traits

• Society Trait: Chosen Destroyers: Now has access to city structures that can increase Hero Cap. One can be built every City Tier of the Throne City.

Origins

• Wizard King: Overchannel starts on a 1 turn cooldown.
  
• Wizard King: Now only gains +5 casting points every other level instead of every level
  
• Champion leaders now gain +20 draft on their throne city, providing a faster way for them to rally troops in the early game.
  
• Dragon Lords: Astral Aspect now grants +4 Resistance instead of +2

Heroes

• The first hero over the cap costs 30 gold and 5 imperium. Each additional hero over the cap costs 30 gold and 5 imperium more per turn than the previous one.
  
• Reworked the needed amounts of experience for heroes to level up. They now get their first level slightly faster and after that it should feel about the same until level 6. After that it starts getting slower.
  
• Implemented a limbo system for hero items. When you unequip them it takes x turns to:
  
  • Become available for other heroes to equip
    
  • Can not be traded with other players
    
  • Can not be sold
    
  • Does not count towards arsenal effects (like hoard mechanics)
• Hero Background traits
  
  • Affinity Adept hero background traits now grant +2 empire affinity instead of 3,
    
  • Distracting now has 60% chance to inflict distracted rather than 90%

Hero Skills

• Precision Training no longer gives Critical Chance.
  
• Lightning Evoker - Increased damage from 10 to 14.
  
• Endurance Training - Reduce HP from 15 to 10.
  
• Weaver - Can refresh all abilities. Is now a single action. Places hero on defense mode.
  
• Channel Power - Is now a free action that gives a 50% damage boost to magic attacks for the current turn only.
  
• Summon Elemental - Now works in water maps
  
• Comet Breath:
  
  • Is now a full action
    
  • Had its range increased to 5 from 4
• Rebalanced Dragon Auras
  
  • Order Aura, Materium Aura and Astral Aura no longer gives bonuses to the Dragon Lord itself
    
  • Chaos Aura redesigned:
    
    • Now gives Burning to adjacent enemies
      
    • Now has a 90%chance to proc a random negative status effect on random enemies
      
    • Now gives a random buff to adjacent allies
  • Shadow Aura redesigned
    
    • Now gives Slowed and Weakened to adjacent enemies
      
    • Now has a 60% chance to freeze adjacent enemies
      
  • Nature Aura
    
    • Now no longer gives Regeneration to the Dragon Lord itself
      
    • Now gives Decaying to adjacent enemies

[fangirlcrazily]

Interface

• In the army panel, you can now see predictions of HP your units (as well as allies and enemies) will regenerate in the next turn. This is a yellow section in the healthbar on each unit slot.
  
• Added notes to status effects to explain which status effects counter other status effects
  
• Added a notification when finishing excavating a province.
  
• When a unit gains a benefit from Pack Hunter, Animal Kinship, Defensive Tactics or Overwhelm Tactics, this is now displayed
  
• Removed inspect option in reward screen for units
  
• Removed the casting cost in strategic transformation screen
  
• Locked the camera zoom layer when annexing provinces
  
• Enabled the Launch Now button for tactical spells that have no specific target
  
• Moved the ‘Center View on Selected Object’ to the correct keybinding category
  
• Custom Realms with DLC traits will now gray out if the DLC is not owned or not enabled.
  
• Allied victory checkbox now grays out when teams are enabled.
  
• Now remembers the position of the scrollbar after inspecting a unit in the unit production list in the city interface.
  
• The about pages are now the same size, so buttons to click next align with each other.
  
• Improved the annexation flow on controller using LB/RB for cycling between provinces.
  
• Improved the UX on the siege screen when adding siege projects. The side menu will now stay open until all slots have been filled. You can manually close the side menu now.

Multiplayer

• Added the Revert Option to the In-Game Menu
  
• Added an Automatic Reload that runs in specific instances
  
• Addressed several Out-of-Syncs that could occur during the initial Map Setup
  
• Addressed several Out-of-Syncs that result in broken Sessions
  
• Addressed an issue where a Session would appear Frozen/Stuck
  
• Multiple out of sync issues fixed
  
• Stability fixes mostly related to Tactical Combat

Pantheon

• Added a “Blocked Underground” misc Realm trait.
  
• Megacities Trait: Now gives all players access to city structures that can increase Hero Cap. One can be built every City Tier of the Throne City. (Does not stack with Chosen Destroyers)
  
• Ashen war Realm trait now no longer gives its quest and event in team games.
  
• The Wondrous Past realm trait now increases Ancient Wonders of all tiers, but does so less extremely. Before this it would place too many extra Gold Ancient Wonders in the map.

Onboarding

• Updated Magic Victory tutorial
  
• Combat tutorials are now properly hyperlinked

Tomes

• Tomes always give +5 Casting Points, regardless of their tier. Previously T3 and T4 Tomes gave +10 and T5 tomes gave +15.

Astral

• Evocation:
  
  • Lightning Blades: Removed the chance to electrify. Now deals +20% against Electrified units.
    
  • Lightning Weapons Hero Skill: Now applies Electrified at 30% chance.
    
  • Lightning Torrent: Damage increased to 20 from 10. Now applies -3 Lightning Weakness instead of 2. Cost increased from 40 mana and casting points to 80 each.
    
• Scrying:
  
  • Summon Watcher - Increased Mana cost from 100 to 150 Mana
    
• Amplification:
  
  • Amplification Pylon:
    
    • Now grants +50% damage increase for tactical summons
      
    • Has Static Charge, dealing 6 lightning damage to melee attackers with a 30% chance to Stun them.
      
    • Amplification Pylon no longer has Blight Immunity
      
  • Amplified Arrows:
    
    • Damage reduced to +2 Shock and -1 Physical from +4 Shock and -2 Physical
      
• Summoning
  
  • Conjure Astral Keeper - Now works in water maps

Chaos

• Horde
  
  • Spawnkin - Now gives 10% evasion to heroes instead of extra damage (non-heroes still get 20% damage)
    
  • Blaze of the Horde - Now does 20 damage to a single target, with an extra 4 damage for each adjacent friendly unit
    
  • Fury of the Horde - Now costs 20 mana and 20 casting points
    
  • Battle Seeker Training - Now gives 1 defense, 1 resistance, 1 status resist and 5hp to tier 1 units (instead of 20% damage)
    
• Pyromancy
  
  • Fiery Arrows: Damage Reduced to +2 Fire and decreased the Physical damage penalty to -1.
    
  • Fiery Weapons Hero Skill: Now applies Burning at 30% chance instead of dealing +20% damage against Burning targets
    
• Demon Gate
  
  • Abyssal Flames damage increased to 20 from 10.
    
  • Abyssal Flames cost increased to 150 mana/CP from 120.

Materium

• Rock:
  
  • Gargoyle:
    
    • Reduced Spirit Weakness from -6 from -3;
      
    • Reduced Fire Resistance from 4 to 2
      
    • Reduced Blight Resistance from 6 to 3
      
    • Can now retaliate when in Defense Mode
      
  • Lesser Stone Elemental:
    
    • Is now a Shield Unit;
      
    • Reduced main attack's damage by 2;
      
    • Reduced Spirit Weakness from -6 from -3;
      
    • Reduced Fire Resistance from 4 to 2
      
    • Reduced Blight Resistance from 6 to 3
      
    • Unit has +5 Max HP
      
    • Like the Stone Spirit it now has Earthen Fury on its main attack (+20% dmg vs Slowed or Immobilized units)
      
• Artificer:
  
  • Artisan Blades: No longer applies to Ranged Units.
    
• Winds
  
  • Zephyr Archer:
    
    • Zephyr Shot damage reduced from 34 to 30.
      
    • No longer has Slippery
  • Wind Ranger
    
    • Increased the base damage of the Wind Rager by 1 and reduced the cooldown of Whirlwind to 1 turn
  • Dust Storm radius increased to 2 hexes
    

• Terramancy
  
  • Earth Shatter damage increased to 20 from 10.
    
  • Earth Shatter cost increased to 100 mana/CP from 80.
    
  • Stone Elemental:
    
    • Is now a Shield Unit;
      
    • Reduced main attack's damage by 2;
      
    • Reduced Spirit Weakness from -6 from -3;
      
    • Reduced Fire Resistance from 4 to 2
      
    • Reduced Blight Resistance from 6 to 3
      
    • Immobilizing Phase now deals 8 damage (was 6)
      
    • Quake is now on a 1 turn cooldown rather than once per battle;
      
    • Quake and Immobilizing Phase chance to Immobilize increased to 50% from 30%;
      
    • Unit has +10 Max HP
      
• Crucible
  
  • Meteor Arrows extra damage reduced from 5 to 4.
    
  • Pyroclastic Eruption damage increased to 20 from 15.
    
  • Pyroclastic Eruption cost decreased to 100 mana/CP from 150.
    
• Golden Realm
  
  • Added +10 Gold income on the Reagent Refinery.

Nature

• Beasts
  
  • Summon Wild Animal now has a chance to spawn a wyvern hatchling or a slither hatchling when used over temperate terrain (requires the Dragon Lord DLC)
    
  • Wildlife Sanctuary:
    
    • Removing the Hunter Spider
      
    • Added Vampire and Dread Spider Hatchlings to replace it
      
• Roots:
  
  • Poison Blades: Renamed to Blight Blades. No longer applies Poisoned.
    
    • Now deals +20 damage against Poisoned units.
      
    • Now also applies the +20% damage on units with Decaying.
      
  • Poison Arrows: Damage Reduced to +2 Blight and decreased the Physical damage penalty to -1.
    
  • Entwined Thrall:
    
    • Now evolves into a Entwined Protector
      
    • Its main attack applies poison at a 60% chance
      
    • Its Poison Needle attack applies poison at a 90% chance (from 60%)
      
• Glades
  
  • Glade Runner - Applies 2 Marked and 1 Sundered Defense
    
  • Create Forest cost reduced to 30 mana/CP from 45.
    
• Fertility
  
  • Restore the Land cost reduced to 30 mana/CP from 45.
    
• Cycles:
  
  • Projectiles of Decay: Reduce the chance of applying Decaying from 90% to 60%
    
• Vigor
  
  • Summon Greater Animal now has a chance to summon a Slither or an adult Wyvern, depending on the location summoned to (Dragon Lord DLC is required, except for the Fire and Frost Wyverns)
    
• Nature’s Wrath
  
  • Destructive Regrowth damage increased to 20 from 10.
    
  • Destructive Regrowth cost decreased to 100 mana/CP from 120.

Order

• Zeal:
  
  • Legion of Zeal now affects Ranged Units
    
• Faith
  
  • Army Heal now heals 25 Hit Points instead of 20.
    
  • Army Heal cost increased to 80 mana/CP from 60.
    
• Beacon
  
  • Removed the +5 Imperium income on the Covenant of the Faith spell.
    
  • Added +10 Gold income on the Covenant of the Faith spell.
    
• Inquisition:
  
  • Inquisitor’s Zeal:
    
    • Renamed to Inquisitor's Mark
      
    • No longer grants Zeal and Accuracy
      
    • Grants:
      
      • Base 30% for base attacks to apply Condemned.
        
      • Base 30% for base attacks to apply Weakened
        
      • Base 30% for base attacks to apply Slowed
        
    • Upkeep cost increased.
      
  • Burden of Guilt damage increased to 20 from 10.
    
  • Burden of Guilt cost increased to 80 mana/CP from 60.
    
• Sanctuary
  
  • Sanctuary no longer functions as a spelljammer.
    
  • Increased mana income of the Sanctuary Special Province Improvement from +10 to +15.
    
  • Sanctuary Province Improvement now increases pillage time by 2 turns and decreases pillaging yields by -30% instead of blocking pillaging entirely.
    
• Supremacy
  
  • Condemn Army Condemned status effect increased from 5 from 3 strategic turns.
    
  • Condemn Army cost decreased to 80 mana/CP from 120.
    
• Exaltation
  
  • Reduced Imperium income on the Statue of the Leader from +5 to +3.
    
  • Shrine of Smiting - Divine Vengeance no longer ignores Faithful units and only hits enemies.

Shadow

• Cryomancy:
  
  • Frost Arrows:
    
    • Now does +2 frost damage with -1 physical damage.
      
    • Has a 60% chance to apply Slow
  • Frost Weapons Hero Skill: Now applies slowed at 30% chance instead of dealing +20% damage against Slowed or Frozen targets
    
  • Blizzard: Damage increased to 20 from 10. Now applies -3 Status Vulnerability instead of 2. Cost increased from 40 mana and casting points to 80 each.
    
• Doomherald
  
  • Prelude of Doom now inflicts 3 Demoralized instead of 2.
    
  • Prelude of Doom cost increased to 80 mana/CP from 60.
    
• Cold Dark
  
  • Flash Freeze damage increased to 20 from 10.
    
  • Flash Freeze cost increased to 100 mana/CP from 80.
    
• Oblivion
  
  • Fog of Insanity chance to inflict Insanity increased to 20% from 10%.
    
• Reaper
  
  • The Reapers Finger of Death now summons a decaying zombie, not a normal zombie
    
  • The Harvest Population spell from the Tome of the Reaper now is a sustained city spell, while active, the city’s food income is blocked (including from converting draft to food), it loses -20 stability, but gains +10 souls income.

Evolution

• Youthful Regeneration - Now grants Resurgence to Evolve units.
  
• Rapid Evolution Enchantment - Grants Tier 1 and 2 Units Slip Away rather than Resurgence
  
• Draconic Vitality - Now caps at level 5 when giving a bonus to heroes.

Units

• Ranged Units Legendary Rank no longer grants accuracy
  
• Decaying Zombies will no longer apple morale penalties to their allies when they’re killed
  
• Went through the various spells and abilities that summon zombies. All those that summon a zombie from a corpse now give the zombie 3AP when it appears. Those that spawn a zombie when a target is killed by an ability are unchanged.
  
• Cavalry and Giant Slayer now appear on the ability tooltips.
  
• Dragons now display a High Maintenance tag in their stat sheet that explains they cost more upkeep than normal (they always had the upkeep modifier, but it was invisible before)
  
• Plague and Stormscale Serpent’s Elusive ability renamed to Fleeting to not clash with the Elusive racial mind trait
  
• Wyverns and Birds move faster.

Wildlife

• Dread Spider Hatchling
  
  • Now has +5 maximum Hit Points and +1 Resistance.
    
• Dread Spider Matriarch
  
  • Now has 8 blight resistance instead of blight immunity
    
• Dire Penguin
  
  • Now correctly has faster movement in Swamps due to Amphibious ability
    
• Bone Wyvern
  
  • Now has a 30% chance to apply poisoned with its attacks
    
  • Now has 40 move points
    
• Fire Wyvern
  
  • Now has a 60% chance to apply burning with its attacks
    
  • Now does 9 physical, 6 fire damage with attacks
    
  • Now has 40 move points
    
• Young Fire Dragon
  
  • Now has a 60% chance to apply burning with its attacks
    
  • Now does 12 physical, 5 fire damage with attacks
    
  • Now has fire resistance and frost weakness
    
• Frost Wyvern
  
  • Is now a Skirmisher
    
  • Now has the Freezing Burst ability
    
  • Now has a 60% chance to apply slow with its attacks
    
  • Now has 40 move points
    
• Young Frost Dragon
  
  • Now has a 60% chance to apply slow with its attacks
    
  • Now does 12 physical, 5 frost damage with attacks
    
  • Now has frost resistance and fire weakness
    
• Frost Dragon
  
  • Now applies slow with its attacks
    
• Obsidian Wyvern
  
  • Now does 9 physical, 6 lightning damage
    
  • Now has 40 move points
    
• Young Obsidian Dragon
  
  • Now has a 60% chance to apply electrified with its attacks
    
  • Now does 12 physical, 5 electricity damage with attacks
    
  • Now has lighting resistance and spirit weakness
    
• Gold Wyvern
  
  • Now has a 30% chance to apply distracted with its attacks
    
  • Now has 40 move points
    
• Young Gold Dragon
  
  • Now has a 30% chance to apply distracted with its attacks
    
  • Now does 12 physical, 5 spirit damage with attacks
    
  • Now has spirit resistance and blight weakness
    
• Gold Dragon
  
  • Now has a 60% chance to apply distracted with its attacks
    
• Tide Spirits and Lesser Tide Spirits are now permanently wet, and have had their damage resistances adjusted to compensate for being Wet, so they are no longer weaker compared to other spirits.
  
• Kraken Spawn now does 12 damage
  
• Increased time of the Living Vines summoned by the Horned God from 1 to 2 so they don’t immediately die at the end of the turn.

World Map

• Moving through a vassal city’s domain will now provide the friendly domain movement cost modifier.
  
• You can now view move paths for enemy stacks to see how long it would take them to move to a particular location
  
• Move paths and max move distance lines are now hidden if you select an independent stack that will never move
  
• Starvation now destroys the province improvement
  
• Exploring an Underground Passage gives you vision on both sides
  
• Added a world map visual for when an underground passage is in an owned territory.
  
• Excavatable provinces in the Underground now have a special FX to show that a structure or node is hidden underneath.
  
• Magic ingredients are now split between the surface and underground, where Ores are only able to spawn in the underground.

Ancient Wonders

• The overall distribution of Ancient Wonders, especially Golden ones, has been adjusted to go hand in hand with the revamped magic victory system. Roughly 1.5 golden Ancient Wonders will spawn in a realm. And underground now has a lot less Gold Ancient Wonders and more bronze and silver ones.
  
• Ancient Wonders can now be transferred between different cities and/or outposts of the same empire
  
• Capturing Ancient Wonders now takes 3 turns
  
• Wizard Tower no longer functions as a spelljammer.

Magic Materials

• Increased Imperial Essence Imperium income from +10 to +15.
  
• Removed the +5 Imperium income from the Rainbow Clover.
  
• Added +10 Food income on the Rainbow Clover.
  
• Astral Dew - Lowered World Map Casting Points from +20 to +15.
  
• Archon Blood - Lowered Combat Casting Points from +20 to +15.
  
• Cosmoflux Elixir Collection bonus - Lowered Knowledge and Mana Bonus per Mana Node from +10 to +5.

[fangirlcrazily]

Fixes

AI

• Fixed issue where the AI would wait in certain moment for reinforcements while they have enough units to attack
  
• Fixed AI city target values
  
• Fixed AI victory condition target values
  
• Fixed issue where the AI would move to the ancient wonders understrength
  
• Fixed small issue where the AI would would target unprotected nodes in a hostile domain
  
• Fixed issue where the AI would not use siege projects
  
• Fixed issue where the AI would see less priority to build a wall for a city that has no walls while at war.
  
• Fixed a crash during map generation.
  
• Fixed a potential leak in the Swamp_FX
  
• Improved Memory Efficiency in the Animation Systems
  
• Improved optimizations for Tactical Banners and images that frequently update their Opacity
  
• Fixed issue where the AI would leave a city under siege to pick an easy fight
  
• Fixed issue where the AI could only cast one primed spell per turn
  
• Fixed issue where the AI would occasionally walk on an allied structure
  
• Fixed a small issue to the AI unit production loop to make sure the AI produces enough units to match the difficulty settings.

Combat

• Taunted units can now correctly be dispelled of the effect.
  
• Fixed an issue that meant Draconic Rage and Berserker’s Rage didn’t work in auto combat. This bug would also lead to an Out of Sync when watching the replay of the combat.
  
• Fixed issue where Bolstered Resistance from the Industrious Bolstering Trait would not correctly remove Sundered Resistance
  
• Fixed an issue where mind controlling a unit wouldn’t update the buffs/debuffs it got from adjacent units
  
• Fixed an issue where resurgence would give units full HP after combat instead of half HP.

Diplomacy

• Fixed issue where becoming another ruler’s vassal would cause your vassal cities to declare war on you.
  
• Fixed issue where the Show Ruler button in Diplomacy for declarations would show a non-functional hyperlink on the button itself.
  
• Fixed a crash that would happen on assigning a whispering stone to a Free City if the allegiance per turn would then become 0.
  
• Fixed issue where the AI could send an insult or compliment to the player on the same turn they met.
  
• Fixed issue where the AI would not end their declarations of Rivalry and Friendship when the relation had changed.
  
• Fixed issue where trade options with Free Cities would be disabled when the player had negative income even if the cost per turn was free.
  
• Fixed several issues where it was possible to declare wars while being vassalized to another ruler:
  
  • It was possible to declare war on your overlord by moving an army onto a structure/army of a Free City that is their vassal.
    
  • It was possible to declare war on other players by moving on their armies or structures.
    
  • It was possible to declare war on other players by using a hostile spell on them.

Economy

• Industry Compound no longer also buffs the Draft to Food conversion ratio.

Empire Development

• Added conditions to several rites to prevent these from being activated while you don’t own a city.
  
• Wild Expansion now only triggers on province annexation through building an improvement.
  
• Spoils of Destruction and Destined Conquerors now both only trigger on razing conquered cities, not your own

Events

• Crimson Caldera
  
  • Fixed recruited rulers in story realm 3 still being governor of their throne city after being defeated.
    
  • Fixed recruited rulers in story realm 3 still auto picking skills after being recruited
    
  • Fixed multiple issues that would occur if you recruited a dead ruler in act 3.
    
• Eternal Court:
  
  • Fixed issue where declaring war to Melenis or Meandor through an event would lead to the war being unjustified and unfairly penalizing the player
    
  • Fixed issue where Sundren would sometimes respawn on a different side than the player’s after being defeated in combat
    
• When viewing a Race Council event, the characters of your race now have the appropriate transformations applied.
  
• When you choose a peaceful resolution for an army-engage event, the army now doesn’t play their death animations anymore, but they simply fade out.
  
• Fixed an issue that the “Mark of the Otter” destiny trait gave 1 Chaos Affinity instead of 1 Nature Affinity.

Free City

• Fixed issue where gaining a bonus to the Rally of the Lieges would initiate the timer even if the first Rally had not been triggered yet.

Heroes

• Fixed an issue where the Berserker’s Belt would give Steadfast and Berserk for one turn too long.

Interface

• Fixed issue where the pantheon bar would overlap the faction creation
  
• Fixed crash when deleting an empty save slot with controller
  
• Fixed issue where the pantheon fold out menu could not be opened with controller
  
• Fixed crash when trying to unequip an item with a controller in the hero screen while not having a slot selected
  
• Fixed issue where the ‘Toggle Hex Grid’ and ‘Toggle Army Banners’ keybindings would not work after exiting combat.
  
• Fixed issue when having a fullscreen interface open while winning the game at the same time, graphical issues would occur.
  
• Fixed issue where the turn count would be displayed in the encyclopedia entries of structures.
  
• Fixed issue where sometimes selecting multiple hero skills to level up would accidentally pick the wrong skill.
  
• Fixed issue where the mouse would be unresponsive in the tome selection of the faction creator.
  
• Fixed wizard kings having their race transformations marked as conflicting where it was the same transformation as is being cast.
  
• Fixed a bug where duplicates of already equipped items would not show in the equipment list.
  
• Fixed rulers in the pantheon overview not showing the right amount of affinities
  
• Fixed a crash when button mashing in the sector selection screen for special province improvements
  
• There is now a distinction between “Domains” and “Infestations” in the Legend on the Overview Map. Originally, “Domains” also filtered out the domain area of an Infestation. This has been moved to the actual “Infestation” checkbox.
  
• Fixed Artifact Hoarders income breakdown correctly display what item tier the income is coming from.
  
• Fixed an issue where some combat UIs would not properly refresh when a “Unit gets a buff/debuff when adjacent to another unit” effect was applied
  
• Fixed empty entry of magic materials in the casting point breakdown
  
• Fixed the spell list tab header upkeep cost to the correct upkeep cost, considering discounts etc.
  
• Removed experience required for next rank in the unit rank tooltip when unit is max rank.
  
• Dismantle Ruins operation now correctly displays why it cannot be activated if conditions aren't met.
  
• Lord of War now correctly mentions its buffs world map regeneration instead of healing after combat.
  
• Fixed Reaper upkeep cost in the spell list tooltip
  
• Removed the duplicate hero level in the hero level tooltip
  
• Fixed issue where the quest failed notification would be empty (only applies to quests that fail with the new fix in place).
  
• Fixed issue where the buttons of the Free City interface would not refresh when opening another interface (e.g. Empire Development) and then closing that back to the Free City interface.
  
• Fixed the informational text strings at the bottom of ability tooltips to have line endings when needed.
  
• Souls Tome: Soul Overflow buff now correctly displays that the unit has +20hp
  
• Fixed issue where the diplomatic state changed notification will not be invalidated if the diplomatic state had changed again.
  
• Fixed teams not working in multiplayer when the setting is enabled after posting the session.
  
• Fixed issue where in the shield tooltip the Threat level value would not show a breakdown of the threat level.
  
• Fixed Alignment Penalty not showing in the Pillage Tooltip unless you stand on the Province.
  
• Fixed a Crash that occurred in the Setup Casting Point Breakdown
  

Controller

• Fixed issue where tome skill slots selection would reset when reshuffling the research.

Localisation

• Multiple language quality and grammar fixes for Polish & Russian languages.
  
• Fixed a flow where hero last names would not resolve in a proper way and kept showing grammar syntax
  
• Veil of Shadows now has proper description
  
• Fixed the Reagent Refinery having the wrong tooltip.
  
• Eyebrow customization slider header in leader customization is now properly localized
  
• Fixed missing description on the Warding Bond Tooltip.

Pantheon

• Fixed issue where the Bannerlords 50% reduction of Rally of the Lieges timers was not being applied.

Research

• Fixed an issue where the game was presenting players with the wrong skills when a game started

Spells

• Lightning Torrent and Blizzard now correctly say they deal 10 damage (was displaying 20)
  
• Arcane Bond no longer ignores a target’s Status Resistance
  
• Consecrate Domain now displays the name of the Morale Modifier correctly when in battle.
  
• Primal Mark now gives the correct version of Primal Strike
  
• Fixed Burden of Guilt from stacking the movepoint loss, making armies unable to move by the second casting.
  
• Final Ultimatum is now an untyped Combat Spell instead of a debuff spell, to make it clear it cannot benefit from the Order Amplifier Lens.
  
• Devolve is now an untyped Combat Spell instead of a debuff spell, to make it clear it cannot benefit from the Nature Amplifier Lens.
  
• Exalted Champion is now a buff spell instead of a damage spell so it can benefit from the Order Bolstering Matrix and it will no longer be wrongly displayed that it will deal damage to the unit.
  
• Rotting Explosion is now a Damage and Debuff Spell so it can benefit from both of the Shadow Amplifier Lens bonuses.
  
• Ice Coffin is now correctly benefiting from being a Damage spell for the Amplifier Lens.
  
• Devouring Void is now a Combat Enchantment instead of a Damage spell, so it is clear that it cannot benefit from the damage bonus of the Shadow Amplifier Lens.
  
• Fulmination is now a Damage/Debuff spell so it benefits from both Astral Amplifier Lens bonuses.
  
• Seismic Shock is now correctly displayed as a Damage/Debuff spell.
  
• Crushing Earth is now correctly just a Damage spell so it no longer benefits from the Materium Amplifier Lens debuff bonus.
  
• Parting Gifts is now a Combat Enchantment Spell, so it is clear it cannot benefit from the extra Healing of the Nature Bolstering Matrix.
  
• Abducting Cyclone is now an untyped Combat Spell, to make it clear it cannot benefit from the debuff bonus from the Materium Amplifier Lens.
  
• Awaken Instincts is now correctly a Nature Affinity spell, so it can benefit from the healing bonus of the Nature Bolstering Matrix.
  
• Demonic Onslaught now correctly allows Extra Unit Effects so the Chaos Bolstering Matrix can apply its extra buffs.
  
• Time Stop is no longer a Buff spell, so it does not display that it will give buffs to affected units from the Astral Bolstering Matrix.
  
• Exhilarating Pollen now correctly heals allies and weakens enemies.
  
• Disruption Wave now correctly only buffs allies and debuffs enemies.

Tomes

• Tome of Sanctuary: Fixed an issue where Keeper’s Mark would sometimes give steadfast for too long.

Units

• Fixed an issue that Stand Together didn’t work with feudal heroes and racial leaders
  
• Eagle Rider now correctly gets their ranks from effects that grant bonus ranks to Shield Units.
  
• Fixed Nature dragons with the Nature Major transformation not being able to properly heal allies (and have their breath not damage allies)
  
• Fixed the Soother Staff appearing behind the Soother when the Crocodile Head is selected
  

World Map

• When embarking; transitions from land to water (and vice-versa) on the Strategic map should now animate a lot smoother.
  
• Outpost Watchtower is now removed upon converting the outpost to a city. As you cannot have a watchtower in your city except for the Wizard Tower.
  
• Improved performance on the start of a new round
  
• Fixed issue where an enemy can take over your siege weapons if they attack within one round of you capturing the city.
  
• Fixed endlessly looping dust effect after migrating a city.
  
• Fixed a crash when a riot is started on a building that is being replaced.
  
• Improved the animation blending during movement animations and in ability transitions. The blending should be a lot smoother, whereas it was very jittery initially.
  
• Reduced the amount of animation “sliding” when units stop running
  
• Combat Summons are now correctly free when used in owned domain with the Summoning Well Special Province Improvement.
  
• Fixed an issue that prevented multi stack battles on all cave entrances. Now multi stack battles are only prevented when you attack THROUGH the cave entrance
  
• Fixed rare crash in saves if a city was razed after the player lost their throne city.
  
• When multiple items are queued for dismantling they will no longer complete in a single turn.
  
• Fixed edge cases where rioting and starvation could disconnect ancient wonders from the city.
  
• Fixed crash when a pillaged province starves.
  
• Fixed issue where you could not teleport to a Vassal City’s Teleporter, Chrono Gate or Demon Gate province.
  
• Fixed issue where having vision on any location inside the domain of a free city would not trigger meeting them, only having vision on a structure or army would trigger a meet.
  
• Fixed crash that could occur on vassalizing a (conquered) city due to properties not being assigned to the correct side.
  
• Fixed an issue where units would be lost after attacking from the water, directly onto land.
  
• Fixed an issue where excavations weren't interrupted when the leader was teleported away from the province.
  
• Fixed crash when clicking on a starved sector that was getting replaced with another structure.
  
• Fixed wrong hero count when a free city that has multiple heroes is integrated.
  
• Fixed wrong hero count when a hero dies to a strategic spell.
  
• Fixed teleporters non-functional after repair.